There are many reasons why interpersonal communications may be misunderstood. Language and communication styles may be influenced by an individual's native language, education, developmental upbringing, social peers, and other influencing factors.
Sometimes communication misunderstandings result from the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of the individuals participating in the communication. For example, a person from Russia may provide a very “straight-forward” oral response to a question from a person from the United States of America. To some people, this type of response may be misunderstood as harsh, because someone familiar with the culture and prevalent communication styles might typically be more careful in word choice, tone, and delivery.
Communication misunderstandings also originate from, or may be intensified by, the medium of the communication. In the previous example, the misunderstanding during the oral conversation may be influenced by an individual's diction, tone, or word choice. External factors such as ambient noise also may lead to a misunderstanding. Excitement or hurriedness also may lead to a misunderstanding in the communication because of the way that a thought is expressed under the circumstances.
Many contemporary written forms of communication are highly susceptible to communication misunderstandings because of the lack of contextual qualifiers which, in other circumstances, might provide additional meaning to a communication. In particular, written communication tools such as electronic mail (e-mail or email), instant messaging (IM), and text messaging (texting) are commonly used in personal and business communications. These communication tools, while very effective in many ways, can lead to confusion as to what is meant by a particular communication because there are typically no contextual qualifiers to indicate the writer's tone, expression, or intent.
Additionally, it is often difficult to separate a person's natural writing style from the content of a written communication. While the actual words of a written communication may denote a particular meaning, the writer's style also may connote an additional meaning, which may be separate from the literal meaning of the communication. Hence, it is often difficult to determine from written communications whether a writer uses a specific writing style to communicate an additional meaning or emphasis, or whether the writing style is simply the writer's natural style and is not intended to connote any further meaning.
This ambiguity between literal meanings and other meanings, which may originate from individual writing styles, can cause additional problems in written communications. In addition to the possibility of using a style that is inconsistent with the literal meaning of the written communication, a person's natural writing style is often discernable from other individuals' writing styles. Thus, knowledge of a person's writing style often makes it easy to identify the author of a written communication. This can make it difficult, at times, to disguise or withhold authorship, for example, when the author attempts to remain anonymous.